Romans 2:20

Romans 2:20. A trainer of the foolish. ‘Instructor' is too weak; ‘corrector' is possibly too strong.

A teacher of babes. These figurative expressions correctly represent the proud attitude of the Jews as religious instructors.

Having in the law. The change of order gives clearness. This clause gives, in effect, the reason of the Jewish attitude, just described. (The article is here used with ‘law,' because the whole law as a book is spoken of.)

The very form of knowledge and of the truth. Not the ‘mere form,' (as in 2 Timothy 3:5), but the exact model, pattern, representative. Religious knowledge and truth had found their embodiment and expression in the law. Paul honored the law (chap. Romans 3:21; Romans 3:31, etc.), and would not speak of it as a mere appearance. Further, the severe rebuke of the following verses implies actual, not seeming, religious privilege. Because the Jew had such privileges, his sin was all the greater: to belong to the true church, to hold the true doctrine, to be able to expound it to others should make us better men; but when these things are joined with unholiness, they but add to our condemnation. At the close of the verse a semicolon should be substituted for the period (comp. Romans 2:17).